Nightmare for Gauteng man, 49, who woke up paralysed from the shoulders down | You

Emil Krügel woke up one morning to find he was paralysed. (Supplied)

It had been an ordinary weekend for Emil Krügel. He’d played golf with his sons on Saturday, but when he woke up the next morning he couldn’t move a muscle.

“He woke me up in the morning and said he couldn’t go to the bathroom. He couldn’t move his body,” says Sonia, Emil’s wife.

Emil (49) from Vanderbijlpark in Gauteng was in good shape, and his sudden condition was a mystery to him and his wife. 

“We couldn’t understand it. My husband has always been active. He was a bodybuilder and participated in all the sports at school.

“That Saturday afternoon after he’d been golfing with the boys, he complained about a pain in his shoulder blade, but other than that, there was nothing wrong with him.”

Sonia recalls how terrified Emil was that Sunday morning of 28 July.

“We were in a state. We called an ambulance and at Mediclinic Vanderbijlpark Emil cried terribly.

“He kept asking what was going on. He tried to hold my hand but he couldn’t. He was paralysed from the shoulders down.” 

A battery of tests and an MRI scan followed, and Emil was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare autoimmune condition in which the immune system attacks the peripheral nerves.

The father of three’s condition is so severe that he’s on a ventilator and is being treated in the hospital’s intensive care unit. 

“The doctors say it’s going to be a long road to recovery for him. He will have to undergo physiotherapy and occupational therapy. He’s going to have to learn to talk and walk from scratch,” Sonia says.

She has been by her husband’s side since his admission to hospital, encouraging him to stay strong. But she also has to be strong, not only for Emil, but also for their children.

“Our youngest is seven years old and I’m not taking him to hospital because I don’t want to expose him to that.

“For now I just want my husband to be disconnected from the ventilator,” she says.

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Even though it’s a tremendous shock for the family, Sonia is staying positive. 

“Doctors say he can hear me, so I talk to him and I play his favorite songs for him.

“My husband is still young. I know he will fight back. It’s not his time yet.”

GBS causes sudden numbness and muscle weakness that can affect most of the body. The first symptoms are usually muscle weakness and/or tingling sensations in the feet and legs and these symptoms can come on suddenly. Most people make a full recovery with treatment and rehabilitation.